The mad dog must be put down. Or at least Canada must stop granting Israel unique benefits as it commits a second genocide.
Israel is seeking to permanently depopulate a large swath of southern Lebanon. Tel Aviv has ordered the evacuation of all Lebanese south of the Litani River. On Sunday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “immediately” destroy bridges over the Litani River and Defence Minister Israel Katz said the IOF will “accelerate the destruction of Lebanese homes in the line of contact villages, to thwart threats to Israeli communities, in accordance with the model of Beit Hanoun and Rafah,” which were largely flattened. Threatening a largely Shia neighbourhood of Beirut with the destruction Israel caused in a city in southern Gaza, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich declared, “Very soon, Dahiyeh will resemble Khan Younis.”
Since the start of the month Israel has killed over a thousand Lebanese and destroyed large swaths of Beirut. Before Hezbollah launched a half dozen rockets in response to the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Israel violated the fifteen month ‘ceasefire’ 10,000 times, killing 300 Lebanese, according to the UN mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
As they seek to ethnically cleanse southern Lebanon, Israeli commentators are openly calling to settle Jewish colonists there. A member of the Israeli government Zvi Sukkot declared: “We must conquer territory in southern Lebanon, destroy the villages there and annex the territory to the state of Israel.” It’s part of their “Greater Israel” project of extending the Jewish supremacist colony over ever more Arab territory.
On Thursday Haaretz reported on a recent poll finding that 62% of Israelis agree that Israel should occupy southern Lebanon. In “‘Judaize the Litani’’ Under Cover of War, Israel’s Right-wing Camp Pushes to Expand Borders – and Settle Lebanon”, the liberal Jewish Israeli paper highlights a division among the security establishment and expansionist right. According to former reserve brigadier general Harel Knafo, “I want southern Lebanon scorched, from our border to the Litani, like the DMZ between North and South Korea. Completely exposed land, with nothing in it: no villages, no people, no trees. Flatten it completely.”
Others see the cataclysmic US/Israeli war on Iran as an opportunity to expand Jewish settlement into southern Lebanon. They are calling for Israel to annex the territory and extend its northern border to Lebanon’s Litani River (as Israel’s done in Syria). They cite the plans of early Zionist leaders like first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. In a recent Jerusalem Post column headlined, “Time to implement Ben-Gurion’s vision: Litani River is Israel’s natural northern border”, Avi Abelow writes, “The only way to ensure the safety of Israel’s northern communities is exactly what Ben-Gurion understood over a century ago: Israel must control the territory up to the Litani River and resettle it with Jewish communities. Because security for Israel is only ensured with a Jewish civilian presence. And the same logic applies elsewhere.”
Jewish Israeli society is drunk on power and supremacism. This monstrous society is emboldened by powerful evangelicals like US ambassador Mike Huckabee who supports the idea of an Israel stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates.
In Canada, Israel Now head Meir Weinstein recently posted “Southern Lebanon is actually part of Historic Israel. The Government of Lebanon has no ability to disarm Hezbollah. Israel should therefore conquer Southern Lebanon and expel Hezbollah.” After launching a “Make Gaza Jewish” campaign, Weinstein wants to ‘judaize’ southern Lebanon.
Ottawa must denounce Israel’s genocide in Lebanon. The federal government should also stop intervening in Lebanon to undercut the resistance and remove Hezbollah from Canada’s terror list.
Alongside a shift in policy towards Lebanon, Canada needs to stop offering Israel unique, unmatched, assistance. Ottawa must rescind the charitable status of all synagogues, schools, camps and community centres assisting the Israeli military in violation of Canada Revenue Agency rules. Beyond public subsidies through charitable status, many of these genocidal Jewish supremacist institutions receive direct government grants, which must end. They should also apply the Foreign Enlistment Act to all the schools and other institutions “inducing” Canadians to join the Israeli military and apply the War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act towards anyone in this country who has fought in the IOF (1,500 Israelisoldiers have Canadian citizenship, which is dozens of times the number of Jews in Canada’s armed forces)
Genocide in Lebanon. Genocide in Gaza. Colonist pogroms in the West Bank. A cataclysmic war on Iran. Israel is a mad dog that is tearing apart its neighbours.
Its rabid state is being fed by Christian and other Zionists around the world as well as arms dealers, while the US empire seeks to use and benefit from its violent fanaticism. Yes, Canada is a “middle power” and cannot solve the world’s problems, but it can and must stop feeding the rabid dog.
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